1. Field of the Invention
This application claims the benefit of French Patent Application No. 96/00980 filed on Jan. 29, 1996.
The present invention relates to a branch connector for an underground cable enabling an electrical and mechanical connection to be made between a main or "through" cable of circular section or of so-called "sectoral" non-circular section, and a secondary cable or "branch" cable of circular or of sectoral section.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 9 shows a connection device in widespread use at present in the field of underground networks and it is constituted essentially of metal parts, having a body 5 surmounted by a self-locking cap 6 acting via a presser member 7 to provide a mechanical and electrical joint between the cables to be interconnected, and which operates on the basis of mechanical clamping, e.g. by means of a screw 8, or by crimping. As a result, when such an underground connector is to be put into place, it is necessary firstly to strip both the through cable and the branch cable and then, once the joint has been established, to apply insulation either by means of an insulating cover or by means of flexible insulating sheath.
As a result, that known device for connecting underground cables together suffers from numerous drawbacks. Firstly, the requirement for stripping the cables gives rise to an operation that is lengthy, awkward, and sometimes even dangerous since in the particular field of underground cable networks, it very often happens that the main cable is live and cannot be disconnected without giving rise to severe penalties for users of the electrical network of which it forms a part. The connection device is at a live potential, as are the clamping screws or the crimping tools. Consequently, the person (or jointer) who needs to access the live main cable is also taken to high potential when acting on the cable, thus requiring special protection (e.g. a special trench suit). Thereafter the connection device still needs to be insulated after it has been put into place, which implies a further difficult operation, since that too must be performed on parts that are live. Finally, with that type of prior art connector, it is essential to separate the various conductors of the main cable from one another so as to be able to pass a connector body around each conductor.